Questions To Interview A Social Media Manager

Has the time come to hire a social media manager? If you are passing off social media to your marketing department or adding it on to someone else’s job in the company, you are probably ready to hire! But what on earth do you ask someone in an interview about such a new and often foreign field to so many. Sure some may think they are an expert b/c “I’m on Facebook ALL the time”, but that doesn’t mean a thing about promoting and engaging a business online. We’ve come up with a list of top questions you need to ask:

1. What is the number 1 benefit for a business to be on social media? Let’s hope they say “engagement”. Client/customer engagement is the most important thing a business can have online. Listen, everyone is online, everyone has some kind of social profile…no matter how much they admit to using it. Having your business on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube is going to help you reach your audience. It gives you a chance to engage with them, answer questions, tell them about the company, make announcements, share deals and so much more. You need someone who cansee ths, who believes in this.

2. What do you know about monitoring and listening on social media? Here you are looking for someone with a fine attention to detail. Every day, multiple times a day, a social media manager needs to be checking and reviewing all your profiles. They need to be reading comments, answering questions, looking for shares, likes and Retweets. This is your audience talking to you, asking you something, showing you something…and if the manager isn’t actively monitoring it, you are missing out.

3. How are your writing skills? Maybe don’t even ask this question but have them show you! Give them a writing test.Throw them a few scenarios your company might talk about for the coming month and ask them to write posts. Delivering a message on social is short and sweet (especially on Twitter!) and if they can’t get the point across quickly, then they aren’t a good fit. Of course they might not immediately know your company’s tone and audience but hopefully they’ve done a bit of research! And those things can be established after hiring. But the basics of just writing can’t be faked so put them to the test.

4. How would you handle an angry customer or client online? Most importantly, they need to check with their immediate supervisor first, make them aware. Secondly, it is important to take the angry person offline quickly. A short post that acknowledges the person’s complaint and give them an outlet via email or phone to contact the company. This also shows anyone reading it that you are actively working on it. Once the issue is resolved offline then a reply can be posted informing of the resolution. But never ever delete a complaint. This tends to further anger clients and can result in an even harsher post. The caveat to this rule about deleting is any foul language, inappropriate images or harassment can certainly be deleted immediately and the person blocked.

5. How would you spend advertising dollars on social media? This question is definitely subjective to your company but hopefully there would be a discussion about building out your audience or promoting significant events/products/aspects of your company. There are many types of campaigns that can be run on social: audience development, promoted posts, driving traffic to your website, finding leads, etc. Someone newer to social may not have been exposed to all types of campaigns but do they have a general sense of marketing and common social goals?

6. How would you measure ROI? First, did they know what ROI was or did you see fear in their eyes! Second, listen for key things like level of engagement with likes, shares, Retweets and audience reached as well as increased page likes/followers, increased website traffic, metrics on ad spends, hashtag usage, etc.

7. Do you believe engaging our business on social media is even worth it? Ding ding ding, this is the BIG question! You have to have someone who believes in this. Someone who sees that regardless of people saying that they never use Facebook anymore or only skim Twitter occasionally, the numbers just don’t back that up. Businesses are thriving on social media. They are reaching customers, engaging with clients, developing leads, directing followers to their website and so much more. Find a person that believes in this. Period.